10 Money Moves to Make BEFORE Your Holiday Bills Arrive

We’ve all been there when it comes to overspending during the holidays. All it takes is a few extra gifts, and suddenly, you’ve got much larger bills than anticipated. 

Buying too many holiday presents is common, with a recent Nerdwallet survey showing that 10% of shoppers had to tap into their savings accounts to cover holiday bills, while 9% ended up forgoing paying their existing bills to buy presents instead.

And that’s not all, 23% of survey participants admitted that they were still paying off their holiday bills from the prior year. The good news is that it isn’t impossible to get out of debt, and these 10 strategies can help you get your finances back on track.

If you’ve racked up a ton of extra charges on your credit card, it may be a good idea to look into applying for a balance transfer credit card that offers a 0% introductory interest rate.

You may need to pay a small fee upfront to do the balance transfer, but the amount you will save from the introductory interest offer can often be worth it. 

Then, once you have your debt in a zero-interest account, you can figure out how to pay it off over months instead of scrambling.

While it’s not ideal, taking cash out of your savings accounts to pay down your holiday debt can sometimes be a smart move in the long run. 

That’s because credit card interest rates are often crushingly high, so sometimes you can end up spending way more than you had planned trying to keep up with interest and fees.

Just as long as you don’t forget to build that savings account back up, that is. Even when you’re paying down debt you may want to continue to make small contributions to your savings account so that you have money in it to cover emergencies.

As painful as it might be, look at how much you spent on gifts during the holidays and then figure out a roadmap to paying it all off. 

Once you have a dollar amount, you can crunch the numbers based on your income and determine how much you can contribute each month to pay it off.

Knowing the numbers might cause you discomfort initially, but try to avoid blaming yourself or dwelling on your past spending habits too much and instead focus on how you can avoid making the same choices during the next holiday season.

Some people find it hard to curb their spending after they’ve started, which can lead to even more debt. Instead, it’s best to understand that you went a bit overboard and course correct. 

Afterall, the sooner you can return to your baseline spending, the better off your financial situation will be.

This tried and true method will help you clear your biggest debts quickly. The method involves paying off your highest interest balances first, which will save you a lot of money in interest. 

If you have a high-interest-rate credit card, it’s imperative to clear it before you’re buried under a mountain of debt.

Commit to paying only for essentials for a month — like your rent, utilities, and food — and you’ll be surprised at how much money you can save. 

The short timeframe makes it much more manageable, and when you do it this way you can often return to your regular spending patterns that much faster.

If you haven’t already, determining your basic budget will be essential to figuring out how much you can contribute to your holiday debt and how long it will take you to pay it down. 

In a perfect world, you’d get through that entire no-spend month and then keep that going until you’re debt-free.

Setting up automated payments on your credit cards can be an easy way to deal with your debt without having to allocate too much extra time to the process.

Not only that, but you can also use this same approach to replenish your savings after each pay period. The more you can automate these processes, the less likely you will spend money on other non-essential things.

If you have large debts, it may make sense to consolidate it all under one personal loan. 

The interest rates are significantly lower than those of a credit card, so you may save money on the interest you’d be spending in the long run.

Increasing your revenue streams by supplementing your income will greatly help you overcome your holiday overspending. Even just going through your closet and selling old clothes will give you extra cash you can use to whittle down your debt. 

Get creative with your side hustles. Whether it’s making products to sell on the internet or doing freelance work, every little bit of extra income helps

While these debt payoff strategies may help you as you prepare for those holiday bills to start piling up, coming up with a plan to help you to keep making the same mistakes is also a smart financial choice.

No matter what you decide, just remember not to be too hard on yourself. You can’t change the past, but you can figure out a way to deal with your holiday splurges so that the bills don’t follow you too far into the new year.